A/N: Here's chapter nine :)

Chapter Nine

I had my meal sent to my room. Once I was finished I just sat there. In my room. Thinking. Going over everything again and again in my head. My mother was a princess. I was a princess. My mother was a demon. I was a demon. Suddenly nothing made sense, my entire life had been a lie. Well not a lie exactly since my mother had never got the chance to explain everything to me, but still my life so far was… fake. I never even knew demons existed until I came here, and now suddenly I am one? It just seemed so unreal. Like one of the stories I told the children. Only it was real. The life I knew before was over.

I wanted everything to just fall into place inside my head. I wanted it all to suddenly make sense. But it didn't. I took a deep breath. If I thought about it though, it wasn't really a bad thing. I did get to meet Rin. And Lord Sesshomaru. And Lord Isao and Lady Emi and the children and Chieko and Hotaru and even Jun and Jaken. No, maybe this wasn't such a bad thing at all. It had just happened so suddenly. It was a lot to take in. I don't even know how to be a princess…or a demon. I laid down on my bed, there's not a whole I can do about it…for right now I'll just take everything day by day. Nodding at my decision I felt myself drift off to sleep.

"Lady Nicole?" I slowly opened my eyes to see a maid standing in the doorway of my room. When she saw me look at her she spoke again, "Excuse me for waking you Lady Nicole, but I've been told to escort you to your new room."

I sat up and looked at her, "But I like my room."

The maid didn't seem to know what to do for a moment, "I'm sorry, but I've been told to take you to your new room."

I sighed, I wanted to insist but that would just cause the woman problems, so I nodded to her, "Alright, I'll come with you." She waited for me to join her at the door and then she took off down the hall. I followed her silently until she stopped in front of a door. "Is this it?" The maid nodded. Hesitantly I opened the door and gasped.

The room was huge! I could easily fit two and a half of my old room in here. I stepped inside, there was a bookshelf and a fireplace and a bed. My bed. It was ridiculously big, I could probably fit six of myself on there.

"Your things will be moved here tomorrow," I turned to look at the maid but she was already gone.

I turned my attention back to my room, wow. It really was amazing, this was the kind of room that people can only dream about and now this one was mine. I noticed a door to the side of my bed and decided to explore, it was a bathroom. Or at least it had what was considered a toilet for this time period. There was no bath. I looked around and noticed another door, this one was closed. Curious I opened it and stopped in my tracks. Through the door was what looked like indoor hot springs, it was amazing. I really couldn't wait to take a bath in here, but it was too late to take one tonight.

I walked back into my bed room and stood in the middle of the room. It was great, I couldn't believe Lord Sesshomaru would let me occupy a room this amazing. Shouldn't this be reserved for really important guests or something? I wonder if this is what Lord Sesshomaru's room is like, or if his is even bigger… I looked around the room again, I loved it. Or at least I should have. Slowly I turned and left the room.

I came to a stop in front of Rin's room and stared at the door. I felt bad, I hadn't seen them all day. I knocked and Hotaru opened the door.

"Lady Nicole," she said looking surprised.

"Nicole!" Rin hopped up from her place to the floor and ran over to me. It didn't take the other children long to follow.

I got down on my knees and hugged all of them, "Hey guys, I missed you today. Sorry for not coming to visit earlier."

"It's okay," Yuu assured me, "Mother said you got some pretty shocking news and that you would need some time alone."

"Your mother was right."

"What was the news?"

"Did it have to do with you changing yesterday?"

The questions kept coming and I had to laugh, "Calm down, calm down. I'll tell you everything but first let's go inside and sit down." The children nodded and pulled me inside.

"Um, Lady Nicole?"

I looked at Hotaru quizzically, "Why are you calling me that?"

She looked taken aback, "Excuse me?"

I smiled at the girl, "Hotaru I considered us friends before all of this, please don't start treating me different now."

The girl considered this for a moment and then broke out into a smile, "Okay." She paused, "Um… do you want me to leave you alone with the children or do you want me to stay?"

I shrugged, "You can go to bed if you want, I've got them for now."

She nodded, "If you need me just call."

"Okay I will." She left and I turned my attention back to the children, they were all staring at me.

"Tell us what happened," they demanded.

I chuckled, "Alright, let me tell you a story. Once upon a time…"

"Are you really a princess?" Kiku asked.

"It seems that way."

"That's so cool! You can be like Cinderella and fight monsters!" Sho said excitedly.

"And you get to marry a prince!" Arata exclaimed.

"Well I don't know about that one."

"Nicole?"

"Yes Rin?"

"Are you… are you really a demon?" Rin asked slowly, sounding somewhat sad.

"…Yeah I guess I am."

"Does that mean you'll still like me?" her voice was small.

"Of course I'll still like you! Why wouldn't I?"

"Well it's just that… demons don't usually like humans…" Rin reminded me.

"Well I'm not one of those demons. Hell right now I'm not even demon."

"Yeah why is that?" Takara asked me.

"Well your Lord Isao and Lord Sesshomaru seem to think that my demon blood took over when I wanted to protect you guys. And now it's gone back to sleep. But they think that it will wake up again. I just have to figure out how to wake it up."

The kids nodded. We were all silent for a while. Then one by one they all started to yawn. I laughed, "I guess you all are pretty tired huh? Just lay down and I'll sing to you."

"Nicole?" Yuu spoke up.

"Yeah?"

"Tonight… can we sing to you? I might make you feel better…" the rest of the kids nodded in agreement.

I felt tears well up in my eyes, these kids are so sweet. "I would love that."

Yuu nodded and started singing and soon the other kids joined in. By the time all the ducks had found their way home again I was crying. The kids looked at me in shock.

"Did we mess up?" Rin asked.

"We're sorry, we didn't mean to make you cry!" Sho said panicking.

I shook my head and motioned them all closer, when they were close enough I wrapped them all in another hug, "It was great, I loved it. Thank you so much."

"Then why are you crying?" Kiku asked.

"Because it made me really happy that you all sung that to make me feel better."

"You cry when you're happy?" Takara sounded confused.

I nodded and hugged them tighter. We all stayed silent and finally I let them go. "Come on its time for bed." They all groaned and protested but eventually they went to their rooms to sleep for the night.

I closed the last kid's door, and then stared at the door to my old room. My new room was really amazing but… it just didn't feel right to be so far away from Rin. Since the day I met her we had never been that far away from each other. Fuck it. I walked into my old room and went to sleep.

The maids didn't look surprised when they found me in my old room the next morning, they just told me that breakfast was ready and I could go down when I wished and then they left. I sighed as I got dressed and then headed down to breakfast. Lady Emi was the only one there. The children were probably still asleep.

"Nicole, it's good to see you today."

I smiled sheepishly at Lady Emi, "Yeah, I'm sorry I just kind of disappeared yesterday."

The woman smiled at me, "That's quite alright dear, I'm sure you were quite shocked after the news yesterday."

I nodded and took my seat, "That's an understatement."

She chuckled, "And I heard you had the maids in such a fuss earlier."

"I did?"

"Yes, it seems they went to your new room and they couldn't find you."

I laughed guiltily, "Whoops." I thought for a moment, "but they didn't seem all that surprised when they woke me up this s'morning."

She smiled at me, "Yes well, it seems when they went to Lord Sesshomaru with this news, he simply told them that you were in your old room."

I stared at her confused, "How'd he know?"

"I wonder."

I continue to look at her for answers but she had turned her attention back to her breakfast. I stared down at my food as I thought about what I had just heard. How had Lord Sesshomaru known where I would be? I didn't have the faintest idea.

"Thank you so much for agreeing to the terms of the treaty Lord Isao," Jun's voice could be heard as he entered the dining hall with the Lords.

Lord Isao laughed, "I was planning to negotiate a few more terms but I thought it was the least I could since Nicole saved the children. Think of it as a token of my gratitude, so really if you want to thank someone it should be Nicole."

I looked over at him in surprise and he winked at me, I blushed. I turned my attention to Jun and Sesshomaru, "You don't need to thank me, really I-"

Jun bowed, "Thank you Lady Nicole."

I knew I was about as red as a tomato, I looked down and nodded. The rest of breakfast was filled with political talk that I had no desire to pay attention too. Soon Lord Sesshomaru was finished with his meal and he stood up.

"Nicole?"

My heart picked up speed, I guess I'll never get used to him saying my name. I looked up at him, "Yes?"

"Come with me."

I stared at him a moment before I got up and I was surprised that he waited for me, usually he just left and expected people to follow. I felt someone staring at me, so before I walked out the door I turned to look. Lord Isao and Lady Emi were watching me with a smile on their faces. I shot them a confused look but they just turned away.

Lord Sesshomaru led me into his office and motioned for me to sit down in the chair opposite of his. We both sat in silence and I was beginning to wonder if Lord Sesshomaru was planning to talk at all when he finally spoke.

"Was the room not to your liking?"

I blinked, "What?"

"The room. Did you not like it?"

I finally dawned on me what his was referring to, "Oh! No, I loved it."

"Then," he paused, "why did you not spend the night in there last night?"

I hesitated, "…okay this might sound really stupid but," I paused trying to find the best way to phrase what it was going to say next, "Okay look. My new room is great, amazing in fact, but it's really far from Rin's. Which is silly, but Rin and I-we-we've never really been that far away from each other. I mean we have but-" I huffed at myself for having trouble with this. "It's just that I don't feel comfortable sleeping that far away from Rin, we're like sisters and… I guess I like to know she's…close and safe. If that makes any sense."

"I understand."

My head shot up to look at Sesshomaru, "You do?"

He didn't answer, he didn't even nod. He just looked at me, I was able to hold his stare for a minute before I had to look away. We were back to sitting in silence.

"Would you like to see your mother's village?"

I looked at him again, "I can do that?"

I thought for a second that I had seen him smirk, but it was gone before I could be sure, "Yes. I could take you there if you would like."

My eyes widened, "You would do that?"

He nodded, "If you wish it."

I beamed, "That would be great!" I paused for a minute, "Um I don't mean to look a gift horse in the mouth or anything, but… um what brought this up?"

"I simply thought that you would want to see where your mother was raised," he paused, "and I suppose I wanted to thank you."

I was stunned, "Thank me for what?"

"As Lord Isao said at breakfast, he only agreed to all the terms of the treaty because you protected the children."

I shook my head, "I really don't need thanked for that. I wanted to do it. I was happy to do it."

"Indeed," he paused again, "still think of this as my gift of gratitude." I was too surprised to speak so I just nodded. "I will call upon you tomorrow and we shall travel to the village together."

I nodded again and took that as my cue to be dismissed but hesitated at the door. I turned around to look at Sesshomaru again, "Thank you Lord Sesshomaru."

"There is no need to thank me."

"Thank you anyway."

Later that day Lord Isao and his family left the palace.

"Do you really have to go so soon?" I asked

"I'm afraid so," Lord Isao replied, "it turns out that the attack the other day came from the people threatening my tribe. I need to go back and make sure everything is alright."

I nodded and sat down on my knees and opened my arms to the children who ran into my offered hug. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. "We'll miss you guys," Rin nodded in agreement.

"We'll miss you too," Yuu assured us.

"Come back and visit soon."

"Or maybe you can come visit us."

"We would love that."

We separated, I could tell the kids were tearing up as well, "I'll write you and Rin."

"Me too!"

"Me too!"

"Me three!"

"Me four!"

I couldn't help but laugh, but Rin started crying, I hugged her to my side, "And we'll write all of you too." I let the kids finish saying their good-byes as I turned to Lady Emi and Lord Isao, "I was a pleasure meeting both of you."

"The pleasure was all ours," Lord Isao assured me.

I nodded and Lady Emi stepped forward and hugged me, "Give him time."

"Huh?"

"Lord Sesshomaru, give him time," she whispered again as she continued to hug me.

"Give him time for what?"

"You'll see," with that she let me go. I wanted to ask her what she was talking about but she gave me a look that told me not to say anything.

Lord Isao hugged me next, "Listen to my wife, be patient." His hug didn't last nearly as long as Lady Emi's, he let go as soon as Lord Sesshomaru and Jun entered the entry hall.

Lord Sesshomaru had a look of displeasure on his face but I couldn't fathom why he would be displeased unless he was upset to see his guests leave as well. "Farewell Lord Isao, have a safe trip."

Lord Isao grinned wide, "Thank Lord Sesshomaru, and thank you for your hospitality." Lord Sesshomaru nodded but didn't otherwise reply. Lord Isao clapped his hands, "Well I guess this is it for now, good-bye everyone."

Rin and I hugged to others one more time before they were ushered out the door. Rin buried her face in my side and I wrapped an arm around her. I walked her outside and we watched until Lord Isao's carriage disappeared in the distance.